University of South Carolina Spartanburg - Carolana Yearbook (Spartanburg, SC)

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1970 ' s OVERVIEW Vol. 1 No.l Spartanburg, S.C. THE NIXON YEARS uses VIETNAM V AR ENDS March 1973 (AP) — The U.S. Command officially ended more than a decade of military intervention in Vietnam on Thursday, folding its colors and sending its last 2, .500 men homeward or to other bases in Southeast Asia. The last American troops left Vietnam virtually around the clock. Planes took off from Saigon ' s Tan Son Nhut air base from midnight on. The last flight was due out by dusk, ending the role of the U.S. Command that once had half a million American soldiers un- der its orders. Some troops simply transferred to U.S. bases in Thailand where the United States will continue to maintain a strong air arm to discourage any mass offensive in South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese. WATERGATE NIXON RESIGNS 1974 (AP) — Although he contended to the end he had done no wrong deserving the destruction of his presidency, two years of scandal had brought him to the brink of impeachment, stripped of his most effec- tive friends. Even his staunchest defenders began deserting the embat- tled President when he admitted he had withheld evidence from Con- gress, the public and his own lawyer. A tidal wave of reason followed that Ni, on admission on Aug. 5, and his acknowledgement that he had given orders within a week after the June 1972 break-in that the Cen- tral Intelligence Agency be used to blunt the FBI investigation. Nixon also disclosed that he was told six days after the break-in that his cam- paign director and former attorney general, John N. Mitchell, may have had some prior knowledge of the plans to wiretap Democratic headquarters. This stood in stark contradiction with numerous state- ments by Nixon that he had known nothing about a cover-up until informed by then-White House legal counsel John W Dean III on March 21, 1973. More than eight members of his White House staff had been sentenced to jail. The subsequent Nixon admission of his involvement in a scheme to head off the FBI investigation, plus an earlier disclosure that key tapes were missing and an 18V2-minute segment of another was blank, seemed to insure his fall. NIXON PARDONED Sept 1974 (AP) — President Ford granted Richard M. Nixon a free, full and absolute pardon for any criminal conduct during his presidency, and Nixon responded with a statement of remorse at my mistakes over Watergate. 1 feel that Richard Nixon and his loved ones have suf- fered enough. The former President responded from his home in San Clemente, Ca- lif., with a statement in which he admitted no criminal wrongdoing but said that one thing 1 can see clearly now is that I was wrong in not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Wa- tergate, Philip Buchen, White House counsel, told reporters that Ford granted Nixon a sweeping pardon without any strings attached. In announcing the pardon. Ford said any move to try the former Presi- dent might have taken months or years during which ugly passions would again be aroused, our people would again be polarized in their opinions, and the credibility of our free institutions of government would again be challenged at home and abroad. By the time Americans stopped participating in the fighting, nearly 46, 000 had died on Vietnam battlefields.

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J:iX ' WHERE TO ... WHAT NEXT? Carl Sandburg opening 1 9

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THE CARTER ERA Vol. 1 No.l uses 1970 ' s OVERVIEW JIMMY CARTER FIRST SOUTHERN PRESIDENT IN 128 YEARS January 29, 1977 (AP) — Jimmy Carter, who walked alone when he started his quest, crowned it with his inauguration Thursday as the nation ' s 39th President, then walked with thousands from the Capitol to the White House as they paraded in honor of his tri- umph. Let us create together a new national spirit of unity and trust, he urged Americans. Let us learn together and laugh together and prav together, confident that in the end we will triumph together in the right. Two centuries ago, our nation ' s birth was a milestone in the long quest for freedom, but the bold and brilliant dream which excited the founders of our nation still awaits con- summation, Carter went on. I have no new dream to set forth today, but rather urge a fresh faith in the old spirit. And then with a prayer, it was over. But now Carter, First Lady Rosalynn and three Carter sons set out on foot for the 40 Minute walk remaining. He was joined by thousands. SHAH LEAVES U.S. December, 1979 (AP)— The e, iled Shah of Iran left the United States Saturday, secretly flying from Texas to Panama City where a U.S. Air Force helicopter brought him to this lush tropical island in the Panama Gulf of the Pacific Ocean. His arrival in the United States from exhile in Mexico in October led to the November 4 occupation of the U.S. Embassy in Te hran by Iranian militants who are still holding 50 American hostages in the embassy. CARTER WARNS IRAN Washington, November, 1979 (AP) — The Carter administration hinted for the first time Tuesday at the possibility of U.S. military action against Iran if American hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran are not freed. The veiled threat came from White House spokesman Jody Powell after President Carter returned to Washington from this Camp David retreat to confer with top advisers, including military leaders. A statement released by the shah ' s chief advisor, Robert Armao, who accompanied him here, said the shah ' s departure from the United States no longer provides Mr. Khomeini with an excuse to continue to hold American hostages The shah called on the people of Iran to re- lease the hostages immediately. Khomeini is Iran ' s revolutionary Mos- lem leader who is backing the embassy invaders ' stand that the hos- tages will not be freed until the shah is returned to Iran to stand trial. The United States is seeking a peaceful solution to his problem through the United Nations and every available channel, Powell said. This is far preferable to the other remedies available to the United States. Such remedies are explicity recognized in the charter of the United Nations. The government of Iran must recognize the gravity of the sit- uation it has created. A Panamanian government spokesman in Panama City, Pedro Ureta Jr., said Royo told a group of businessmen in Chriqui Province near the Costa Rican border that Panama gave the shah political asylum be- cause it wants to contribute to solve a world crisis. Powell said the Iranian government was advised of the departure just before the shah left Texas. Under the U.N. Charter, an aggrieved nation is entitled to take defen- sive military action and seek Security Council sanctions, including in- terruption of economic ties or air, sea, or land communications. Shortly after the White House statement was issued. Pentagon officials said the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and an escort of five warships were ordered to sail from the Philippines to the Indian Ocean. The carrier Midway and five other ships are operating in the Arabian Sea about 600 miles from the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Pentagon sources stressed there had been no orders from the White House for military action. i]